Faculty of Law, University of Colima, Mexico.
Department of Molecular Medicine, School of Medicine, University of Colima, Mexico.
J Infect Dev Ctries. 2021 Mar 7;15(2):198-203. doi: 10.3855/jidc.13465.
COVID-19 pandemic affects human health and the global economy. Its evolution is unpredictable, making it hard for governments to provide response actions suited for all populations. Meanwhile, informal street workers carry on with their labor despite contingency measures to sustain their lives. The objective was to conduct a case-control study to become aware of how street vendors' economy is affected during the COVID-19 pandemic.
During phase 2 of the COVID-19 pandemic in a Mexican suburban city. We interviewed informal street vendors (cases) and formal employees (controls).
Before mobility restrictions were in place, population income came 1.5% from formal employment and 23.5% from informal employment (street vendors). Informal employees lived on less than the equivalent of 1.5 Big Macs per day (p <0.001). After the contingency measures, formal employment kept the same, while the informal employment ratio increased to 57.4% (p < 0.001). The street vendors were almost 100-times less likely to be concerned about the coronavirus outbreak (p < 0.001) and were 38-times less likely to stop working compared with the formal workers (p < 0.001).
We have proven that street vendors are a sector of the population that is highly vulnerable to significant economic loss due to contingency measures. Informal workers cannot stop working despite the "Stay at Home" initiative because the government has not implemented strategies that guarantee their survival and their families. Therefore, street vendors continue to be a source of the virus's spread throughout cities.
COVID-19 大流行影响人类健康和全球经济。其演变是不可预测的，这使得各国政府难以提供适合所有人群的应对措施。与此同时，尽管采取了维持生计的应急措施，非正规街头工人仍继续工作。本研究的目的是开展一项病例对照研究，以了解 COVID-19 大流行期间街头小贩的经济状况如何受到影响。
在墨西哥郊区城市 COVID-19 大流行的第二阶段，我们采访了非正规街头小贩（病例）和正规员工（对照）。
在实施流动限制之前，人口收入的 1.5%来自正规就业，23.5%来自非正规就业（街头小贩）。非正规员工的日生活费不足 1.5 个巨无霸汉堡（p<0.001）。在采取应急措施后，正规就业保持不变，而非正规就业比例增加到 57.4%（p<0.001）。街头小贩对冠状病毒爆发的担忧程度低近 100 倍（p<0.001），与正规工人相比，他们停止工作的可能性低 38 倍（p<0.001）。
我们已经证明，街头小贩是由于应急措施而面临重大经济损失的高风险人群。尽管实施了“呆在家里”的倡议，非正规工人也不能停止工作，因为政府尚未实施保障他们生存和家庭的战略。因此，街头小贩仍然是病毒在城市中传播的源头。
